ACTIVITY: QUESTIONS ABOUT RIVERS

(for teachers; students, ask your teacher about this one!)

Benjamin Bloom theorized that learning could be divided into six levels. These six levels are: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. Students will be given the opportunity in this activity to formulate questions in each domain. Using a list of verbs which are associated with each of the levels, ask students to develop questions about the Tangipahoa River.

Materials:

Newspaper articles about rivers in the Lake Pontchartrain Basin

Library resources, Internet, and materials on rivers

Bloom’s Taxonomy of Questions.

Process:

1. Present information about rivers in general and then specifically about the Tangipahoa River.

2. Ask students to form cooperative groups to read and discuss the articles about rivers they have collected in other activities.

3. Model how to formulate questions at each level of Bloom’s Taxonomy using the Bloom’s Taxonomy of Questions Worksheet (Page 100).

Examples include:

Knowledge:What is a streambed, channel and floodplain?

Comprehension: Describe the problems a homeowner would face living in the Tangipahoa floodplain?

Application:Illustrate an “ecologically safe” method which could be designed for building a bridge over the Tangipahoa River.

Analysis: What information would you present to the local historical committee to nominate the Tangipahoa River as a national scenic river?

Evaluation: What criteria would you use to allow building along the Tangipahoa River?

4. Using “verbs” from the Bloom’s Taxonomy of Questions Worksheet, compile a list of knowledge questions from the class. Put knowledge questions on index cards.

5. Using the worksheet provided, create questions for each of the other levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy.

6. As questions are formulated, write them on index cards. Add all questions to the stack.

7. After all the questions have been formulated, shuffle the index cards and play a Tangipahoa River Trivia game. Have cooperative groups compete against each other. Score points for correct answers. Set aside questions which are not easily answered and have students look up the answers or design the projects. Share responses and products with the class.

EXTENSION:
Using a standard calendar, write a Tangipahoa River Trivia fact or question on each of several days of the week for a selected period of time. Fill in with similar information about other rivers in the Lake Pontchartrain Basin. Share the calendar with another class.